


'Kansas'

by BridgetteIrish



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Daily Planet, F/F, Kara Danvers Arrived On Earth On Time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-17 07:52:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13072464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BridgetteIrish/pseuds/BridgetteIrish
Summary: Kara arrived on time and grew up on the Kent farm with little Clark.She gets a job at The Daily Planet and an unfortunate run-in with Cat could be the start of something new and exciting.Prompt: Kara arrives on time and works at the Daily Planet, where she meets Cat, office romance ensues... bonus points for a matchmaker Lois!





	'Kansas'

**Author's Note:**

  * For [puppydanvers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/puppydanvers/gifts).



> Thanks, to reginalovesemma and damelola for the edits and xxtorchxx for early reads. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy puppydanvers! Not sure if I achieved bonus Lois points or not, but this was so much fun to write. Thanks for a lovely prompt!

“Clark, stop!”  Kara threw her hands up and shook her head as the twelve-year-old boy tore through the glass revolving door, spilling him onto the glossy waxed floor of the Daily Planet lobby.  Kara followed him through the door as fast as it would allow and barked at him again as he tore towards the elevators.  “Clark, slow down!  You’re going to-“  But it was too late.  The boy’s worn-out blue Chucks caught a slick spot on the waxy floor and he careened several feet towards the elevators where a trim, determined blonde had just emerged, nose buried in a manila folder and holding an enormous Metro Bean coffee cup.

“Woah, lookout!” Clark attempted to warn the stranger as his shoes finally caught purchase and he pitched forward, his arms came around her in an attempt to catch her and the two of them tumbled to the ground in an undignified heap, surrounded by a small lake of coffee. 

Clark was the first to stand.  His jeans were soaked through from knee to ankle and he stumbled once more on the wet floor before finding his balance and holding his hand out to the fuming woman before him.  “Oh geez, miss, I’m really sorry.  I slipped on the floor and couldn’t stop myself.”  The woman accepted his assistance and wobbled to her feet in her three-inch heels and stared daggers at the babbling child before her.  “Kara says I shouldn’t run.  I guess this is why.  Aw man, you’re all covered in coffee.  It’s just that, I really like to watch the traffic helicopters take off and I heard one start up as we were walking in, so I wanted to get to the roof as fast as possible.  I guess I shoulda watched where I was going and-“

“Clark.” Kara put one hand on his shoulder to cease his stream-of-consciousness as her other dipped into her handbag and pulled out a handkerchief.  “I’m so sorry about my cousin.  He’s just a kid, but he’s rambunctious and clumsy and doesn’t always know his own strength.”  She began to pat the woman’s shoulders, neck and arms with the hanky as she spoke, beginning her own involuntary monologue. “He comes by it naturally,” she chuckled.  “I’m a hopeless klutz and if he hadn’t run into you, I’m sure I would have found a way.  Are you okay?  You’re soaked.”  She let out a tiny gasp as she realized her attempts to dry the woman’s once-white silk shirt had come dangerously close to inappropriate territory.  She snapped her hand away.  “Oh my gosh, I’m sorry.  Here I am pawing you like a neanderthal.  Here.”  She handed the offending cloth over and moved to stand behind Clark, both hands on his shoulders.

The woman narrowed her eyes.  “Does this incessant rambling run in the family too, or are you attempting to dry my blouse with hot air?”

Kara and Clark adjusted their glasses simultaneously and Clark scuffed the floor with the toe of his shoe.  “No.  No, of course not.  Sorry.  Just… embarrassed, I guess.”  She squeezed Clark’s shoulder.  “Don’t let your first impression of Clark ruin it for you.  He’s a good kid.  If he would listen,” she finished pointedly with another squeeze to his shoulders.

“Hm,” the woman patted lightly at her blouse but her sour expression remained.  “You’re Perry’s new assistant, right?  Kansas, or something?”  

“Kara.” She stuck her hand out for a shake.  Cat looked at it as though it might bite her.  “Kara Kent, and this is my cousin, Clark.  We’re… from Kansas.”

“Right, Kiera, I’m-“

“Cat Grant.  I, uh, know who you are.  I’m an admirer of your work.”  Cat wasn’t much older than Kara, but she was miles ahead in experience, in savvy, in confidence and pride.  Kara was in awe and had a little trouble hiding it.  “The piece you did on Diana Prince last month was,” she took a deep breath.  “Inspired.  Mr. White let me look it over for grammar and continuity before sending it to the fact checkers and I was in tears by the end it was so-“  Kara noticed that Cat’s face had darkened.  She pressed her lips together and willed herself to stop speaking.

“Well,” Cat sniffed.  “At least he’s not using trained monkeys.  We haven’t fallen to the bottom of the evolutionary ladder just yet.”

“Hey! I’m--” Kara began but was interrupted by someone coming off the elevator in a hurry.

“Kitty!  Oh thank god I caught you.  Perry is having a conniption.  Mr. Wayne is landing in an hour.  He’s called you a car and insisted you go in person.  Jesus Christ what the fuck happened?”

Kara covered Clark’s ears with her hands to which he looked at her like her brain had fallen out of her head.  Of course he could hear through her hands.  At twelve, his superhearing was almost as good as her own.  Clark wiggled out of her grasp and gave a half-hearted wave.  “Hey Lois.  Sorry, I… sorta ran into her.”  He blushed to the roots of his hair and looked back down at his shoes.

“Clark!”  She wrapped him in a hug.  “That’s okay, kiddo.  Kitty here needs a reminder once in awhile that the world won’t move out of the way for her.”

Cat pursed her lips.  “Someday it will, Lane.  Someday.  I see you already know this little tiny freight train and his trained monkey.”

Lois looked briefly at Kara, whose eyes were fixed on Cat’s flawless profile.  She had a dreamy look on her face and her hands were fidgeting so much, Lois worried they might start a fire.  Kara had a crush.  A hopeless one if the way she licked her lips was any indication.  The plan formed quickly after that.  

“Clark,” she said slyly, “why don’t you and I go back to the coffee shop and get a new coffee for Cat and a hot cocoa for you.  Kara, go back upstairs and trade blouses with Cat.  Perry won’t even notice a coffee stain on your shirt, but if Cat turns up to interview Bruce Wayne looking like that, we’ll never hear from him again.  We’ll all be back in the lobby by the time the car service is here.  Go, go, go.”  She shoved Kara and Cat in tandem towards the elevator and turned to usher Clark back out the revolving door.

 

XX

 

Once inside the elevator, Cat began unbuttoning her blouse.  She gave Kara a sideways glance.  “What are you waiting for?  If you think I’m doing this in the middle of the bullpen, you’re even closer to primate than I thought.”

Kara had finally had it with this angry, beautiful woman and her snarky comments and her velvet voice and her flashing hazel eyes.  “Don’t talk to me like that!”  Cat’s hands froze mid-button and she stared open-jawed at a very defiant Kara Kent.  “Why are you so mean?”

Cat narrowed her eyes, reached around Kara and slammed the stop button on the elevator.  The car jolted to a halt and they both stumbled a bit.  Cat braced herself against the wall, lifted her eyes to meet Kara’s and growled, “Strip.”

Kara, both proud of herself for her outburst and afraid of its consequences, started on her own buttons.

Cat dropped her blouse from her shoulders with no warning or pretense.  The single glance of toned abs and creamy shoulders was enough to send a flood of heat through Kara and she turned away to calm herself and offer Cat a bit of privacy.  She hadn’t bargained for the mirror surface on the elevator walls showing her a perfect reflection of Cat, shirtless, dabbing uselessly at the coffee stain with Kara’s hanky, which she still possessed.  Kara squeezed her eyes shut and shrugged out of her blue cotton Oxford, starched and pressed that morning to within an inch of its life.  Without turning or opening her eyes, she held the shirt out and Cat took it, replacing it with her stained one.

As Kara was sliding an arm into the buttery soft silk shirt, Cat began to speak quietly.

“I’m… sorry,” she started.  “For saying those things.”

Kara did her best to keep her movements even and controlled, for fear of spooking Cat out of the first kind words she’d said since Clark had mowed her over.  It proved difficult as the tone of Cat’s voice dropped and softened.  

“The truth is, both Lois and Perry speak very highly of you.”

The timbre of her words vibrated through Kara’s very fingertips.  Her heart began to race and she attempted to hold her breath as she slowly buttoned the damp shirt across her breasts.  She’d admired this woman from the periphery of the bullpen since her first day.  Her proximity and vulnerability in this moment was making up for every unkind word spoken that morning.  Kara turned and their eyes met, as Cat finished buttoning Kara’s shirt.

“I suppose I felt threatened, by Perry giving you editorial duties, by Lois’s friendship with you.  So I was… mean.  And that wasn’t fair to you.”

“Apology accepted.”  Kara’s smile was returned and her heart gave another affectionate thump.

Cat wiggled around in Kara’s shirt.  “A little heavy-handed on the starch this morning, don’t you think?”

Kara raised an eyebrow.

Cat shrugged.  “I said I was sorry, not that I would change.”  She flashed Kara another half smile.  “I’m not easy to change.”

Kara pressed the emergency button again to get them back on their way.  The elevator gave an almighty lurch and Cat lost her balance, pitching forward into Kara’s arms.

Kara caught her effortlessly and silently congratulated herself on not letting go when Cat’s breath tickled the sensitive spot just under her ear.

Cat gave Kara’s biceps an appraising squeeze as she extracted herself from strong arms.  “Well, brains, beauty and brawn.  Aren’t we a triple threat?” 

Kara didn’t answer, but her blush spoke volumes.

The elevator doors opened to a bustling bullpen and Kara stepped out, unbothered by the large coffee stain on her front, Cat’s voice still buzzing pleasantly in her head.  She only got a few feet before the voice rang out again.

 “Hey, Kansas.”

 Kara spun around and met Cat’s eyes again.  

 “Drinks.  Friday?”

 Kara couldn’t hold in her grin as the she nodded silently and the elevator doors closed between them.


End file.
